Beware the Ides of March...

Ok, so work isn't doing me in like Caesar yet but something else is looming the horizon:

Next semester's classes.

What better way to spend two summer nights a week than by taking Accounting followed by... Statistics! Kind, gentle folks those Willamette schedule makers are not.

That just had to be put down somewhere official. Hopefully more over the weekend. It also seems strange this year that I didn't even watch a NCAA tourney game tonight. First time in as long as I can remember that I have zero connection with the tourney. Guess I must be getting old or something :-)

Brian

Just Did It!

Just to announce that as of Wednesday, March 14th, Brian will be back in the land of the employed! And not only that, but at his first choice company: NIKE.

Like over 40% of the employees there have done, he is starting as a contract worker and planning/hoping to leverage that into a permanent position at the end of the project. Evidently that's how Nike does a significant part of its hiring.

We're excited to be taking this next step towards finally being settled somewhere. Thanks to all for the support you've been giving us in this process.

Now he just has to figure out whether he can bike to the light-rail station....

Becca

(Note from the actual employee-to-be: I'm really excited about the opportunity. I'm overqualified for the position I'm going to be in but everyone has said just "get a foot in the door" and impress. This gives me a low-risk opportunity to do just that. Plus, the actual position allows me to do a little bit of good for the world: I'm going to be working with marketing and community outreach for the Nike factory stores helping run their grant programs. In speaking with my boss to be there is going to be a definite opportunity to expand my role as I prove myself. Expand it enough and they won't be able to get rid of me :-))

Midterm Report...

Excuses, excuses... we all have them but none of them are really good enough for not posting. However, here's a few things that have kept us busy over the past 10 days or so:

• I finally took the GMAT. I'd been conditionally accepted as long as I received an acceptable score in the first semester. While I didn't do as well as I hoped, I did well enough to stay in school. In fact, the folks up at Lake Wobegon would be proud.
• I elected to stop my marathon training. I'm still running but to put in that sort of commitment while in school and looking for work just wasn't going to happen. However, before I bailed, I did get the opportunity to race a 25K in the mud with my friend Mark and his friend Tony.
  

(before: this won't be so bad...)

(after... yes it rained over an inch before the race started and didn't let up)

• The course was such a bog, I finished 31st out of over 230 people averaging 8:50(!)/mile.
  
• We moved! After almost two years, we again have a place to call our own. We spent the weekend unpacking and trying to get things organized. It feels REALLY good to have a place to call our own, even if it is just a rental.
• School. Right, the big white elephant in the corner. We're just past the midway point of the first semester and I'm surviving. I'm really quite thankful that I had the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the rigors of academia on a more flexible timeline before going back to work. It's allowed me to adapt without being completely overwhelmed. Both classes are interesting and most of my weekend is spent either at the library studying or meeting with study groups to discuss the work, etc. At least the study groups are giving us the opportunity to get to know one another; there is only so much socializing you can do on your 30 min dinner break and usually people are too beat/ready to go home when class ends at 10pm.
  
• That being said, I've got a laundry list of work that has to get done this weekend, so much so that I'm contemplating having a bathroom installed in our office :-)
• Becca's consulting continues to go well, but exhausting. Hopefully in the next month or so she can wrap up her work and actually start to look for work out here in Portland!
• As for my job search, it continues. I haven't had as much time to work on it the last week or so but some of my previous efforts may be bearing fruit. I don't want to jinx anything yet but I might have semi-exciting news to report shortly. Let's put it this way, when it rains, it friggin' pours.

More from the new Davis compound soon!

Brian